Daily Dothttp://www.dailydot.com/Daily Dot Articleen-usThu, 11 Aug 2011 19:18:31 +0000Origin of Reddit's alien icon revealedhttp://www.dailydot.com/news/reddits-logo-origin-revealed/<p><img src='//cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/d5/ac/d5aca1caaa773b7a458beea707d121f9.jpg'></p><p>Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian revealed the origins of the social news site&rsquo;s logo for the first time today, showing that, at one point, the site&rsquo;s name had twice the &ldquo;Ts&rdquo; half the &ldquo;Ds&rdquo;, and a whole lot of red.<br /><br />Ohanian demonstrated the logo&rsquo;s evolution in a graphical timeline,&nbsp;<a href="https://plus.google.com/113164038788726940319/posts/9Kfqb4tT2Xr">which he posted on his Google+ page this morning</a>.<br /><br /><img src="https://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2011/8/11/reddit-making-of-logo.png" alt="makingredditlogo" /><br /><br />Ohanian designed the logo in 2005 when he and co-founder Steve Huffman were still undergraduates at the University of Virginia. &nbsp;<br /><br />As for the Reddit mascot itself,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/igo99/whats_the_story_behind_the_reddit_alien/c23q2dj">that was quite literally born from a doodle</a>:<br /><br />&ldquo;I was bored in marketing class my senior year of college at UVA and doodled the alien in the margins of my notebook,&rdquo; Ohanian <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/igo99/whats_the_story_behind_the_reddit_alien/c23q2dj">wrote in a Reddit thread last month</a>.<br /><br />The Reddit logo has seen dozens of incarnations. Prior to leaving in 2009, Ohanian would frequently draw unique logos for holidays or other special events. Now an<a href="http://reddit.com/r/logos"> entire section exists on the site for users to submit their own logos</a>, the best of which Reddit admins sometimes allow to briefly grace the site&rsquo;s front page.<br /><br />Ohanian, who returned to Reddit this year after a two year absence, has made a habit of designing popular mascots for his projects. These include the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hipmunk.com/">Hipmunk chipmunk</a> and the&nbsp;<a href="http://breadpig.com/">Breadpig pig</a> (Ohanian&nbsp;<a href="https://plus.google.com/113164038788726940319/posts/EsGYuXNu7B5">revealed the origins of the Hipmunk logo earlier this week</a> on Google+. That post&rsquo;s popularity inspired him to follow up with his Reddit post today).<br /><br />All three of the mascots feature on Ohanian&rsquo;s profile picture for both Twitter and Google+. For Ohanian, the creatures aren&rsquo;t just fun. They&rsquo;re serious business.<br /><br />In an interview with Inc magazine earlier this year, Ohanian&nbsp;<a href="http://www.inc.com/articles/201103/how-hipmunk-learned-to-respect-its-users.html">explained why a good mascot is important for any business</a>:<br /><br />&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t ever have to worry about your mascot going on a coke binge with hookers like Charlie Sheen. Not that Steve and I would do that, but I actually really like the fact that I can go to Reddit meet-ups and most people have no idea what I look like. I want people to associate their experience with this infallible animated creature.&rdquo;</p>kevin@dailydot.com (Kevin Morris)Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:18:31 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/reddits-logo-origin-revealed/NewsRedditCulture